Recently HTC have released a couple of new phones based on the Android platform – the Vodafone Magic and the Hero (available on Orange or Sim Free as the Hero and on T-Mobile as the G2 here in the UK). Other manufacturers are also rushing to release Android based devices but the only other one available in the UK currently is the Samsung Galaxy which is available on O2 contract or Sim Free from companies like Expansys. For the Hero HTC have used the latest Cupcake (1.5) release of Android and added the own custom interface called Sense UI. This is an evolution of the TouchFlo interface HTC have used on their Windows Mobile phones for a number of years. This provides a multi screen interface which can have different widgets and application shortcuts added to it to provide a totally unique interface for each user.

In use Android is very slick with responsive actions to all finger presses. The current capacitive screens provide a finger friendly touch interface but do not support the use of a stylus. Personally I prefer to use a stylus as I find it more accurate and faster to type with but the current consumer market is demanding stylus free devices. For new users they probably are easier to learn and use.

Software wise Android comes with the Android Market (the Android version of Apple’s AppStore). This contains many thousands of applications and games, some for free and some which require a payment from a few pence to £30-40 for the latest SatNav applications. Some of these are useful and like all application stores, some are just for fun. My current favourites are Facebook (a Google written facebook app), KeePassDroid (for password management), Daily Dilbert (gives me my daily Dilbert fix), Handcent SMS (a replacement SMS application – miles better than the bundled versions) and Meridian (for playing music). Helpfully all these applications are also currently free of charge.

Using the Hero as a phone is also easy. Sense UI has a phone link always present at the bottom of the screen, which provides a large finger friendly keypad for typing numbers. This also searches your contacts as you type (so to bring up contacts called Paul all you type is 7285 and then pick from the contact list. Also helpfully these contacts can be automatically syncronised with your Google account, along with the Google calendar and email. Call quality on the phone is very good and in my experience the phone holds the call very well as you move between cells (both 2G and 3G).

Battery life on smartphones is typically quite poor and a common cause for complaint. Experiences users of them will know not to expect much more than a day or so without recharging but new users who are used to not having to recharge a phone for over a week are often surprised and annoyed by this . The HTC Hero is not uncommon with a battery life of a day under quite heavy use and a couple of days with average use. To increase battery life it is possible to turn off unwanted radio services (switch to 2G when not in a 3G signal area, turn of GPS and WiFi etc, turn off automatic updating/syncronising of software) which can substantially increase battery life but still not to the week standard phone users expect.

In conclusion I would suggest that users who are not looking for applications stick to a standard phone, but for existing smartphone users or those who are looking for smartphone features should actively look at the Android platform. It has matured well from the initial release and is now a very capable operating system. Like most though it is not for everyone so trying out the interface and usability in a shop would be a good idea.

Portions of this page (the Android images) are reproduced from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

First off the new plugins are

1. a better social networking bookmarking feature. This is visible underneath each post as a ‘Bookmark to’ link. Please leave a comment if you would like any other sites adding to the list.
2. An improved commenting system with more advanced spam filtering. This is largely unseen from the front end but I can confirm the spam filter appears to be doing its job very well.
3. Gravatar support so any avatars hosted at gravatar.com are automatically polled into any comment posts. For those who are unaware, gravatars are Globally Recognised Avatars, which allow compatible sites to pull your avatar from a central source without needing to keep a local cache. For users it means only having to set your avatar once and then just supply the associated email address with the comment. For those who do not have a Gravatar account I have also added a neat check box into the comment form so an account can be created for you. If you do choose this then you will receive and email from Gravatar to activate your account so please supply a valid email address.
4. A text size alteration widget in the right hand menu. This will allow you to alter the majority of the text sizes on the site to any size between 7 pixels and 19 pixels in 2 pixel increments. Hopefully this will make accessing and using the site easier for those who are unfortunate to have less than ideal sight.

The new theme, I think, looks a lot fresher and more welcoming than the very dark NinjaMonkey theme I used to use on this site. The new theme is a slightly modified version of freicurv. Hopefully I will like this one enough in a few months to not have to got hunting for another base theme to modify again.

As hinted at above, another background feature I have added is Google Analytics monitoring. This will allow me to see more clearly when visitors arrive and how the site is used. I will not be using any data obtained this way to track any individual, but more to get an overview of how the site is used by everyone. As yet I am not too clear on what data I will get, so am unable to be more precise.

Hopefully these changes will make using the site better for everyone.